


Grunt Birthday Party

by FlightOfInsanity



Series: Halo Shorts [10]
Category: Halo (Video Games) & Related Fandoms
Genre: Gammas, Gen, spartan shenanigans
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-14
Updated: 2016-04-14
Packaged: 2018-06-02 05:55:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 566
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6553633
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FlightOfInsanity/pseuds/FlightOfInsanity
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's totally a necessary morale booster and definitely not just a way to make the training simulations way more like a game.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Grunt Birthday Party

“Turns out you actually _can_ bribe an AI,” Mark announced as he jogged through the door.

“You’re late,” Veta deadpanned, trying to pretend she hadn’t heard Mark’s announcement. She did _not_ want to think of reasons why Mark would be bribing the ship’s AI.

The Spartan waved it off. “I’m only three-irty five minutes late,” he said, looking at the clock on the wall. “Yikes, ok, yeah.”

Lopis crossed her arms, waiting for an explanation. Ash and Olivia carefully peered around the former detective, wanting to see the fallout, but not willing to get in the middle of it. Mark shuffled uncomfortably. Lopis, as much as she played at hating being called Mom, had fully mastered the Mom Toolkit of voices and disapproving stares and wasn’t afraid to use them on the Gammas.

Mark, predictably, caved. “It was just a software patch for the simulator. Like…” he waved his hand, searching for the right words, “a morale booster! I just didn’t think it would take so long.”

The Mom Stare continued for a few seconds before Lopis sighed, “Your training time is already cut short, so just go. But we _will_ be discussing the bribery later.”

“Yes, ma’am.”

She waved a hand at the door into the large training room below and the three Spartans dashed through, grabbing up their helmets on the way out. Shaking her head in amusement, she waited until they’d finished descending the stairs and keyed up the simulation. This particular war game emphasized accuracy and team work and featured large waves of low-level enemies (particularly Grunts and Jackals) and few hiding spots. The Gammas were armed with a pistol and assault rifle each, but no grenades.

As the trio reached the bottom of the stairs and donned their helmets, Olivia elbowed Mark in the arm.

“So what exactly did you do?” she asked.

Mark grinned, big and mischievous, through his visor before polarizing it and responding with a cryptic, “You’ll see.”

The first wave of enemies came and the Spartans leapt headlong into the simulation, charging forward and alternating covering fire as they did. Most of the shots hit limbs or methane tanks on the Grunts, with a few headshots taking out Jackals as they hid behind their shields.

There was a small lull between waves and Mark mumbled, “Huh. Maybe you can’t bribe an AI…”

Ash and Olivia glanced at each other and then shrugged. Whatever it was, Mark would probably explain later. The second round began and a few shots in, Olivia got a Grunt with a headshot. Instead of falling over as expected, a loud and unexplained _POP!_ echoed through her helmet’s speakers, followed by a chorus of cheers and a shower of colorful confetti. She yelped in surprised and dashed backwards a step.

Mark threw his hands in the air, ignoring the simulated enemies currently firing at him, and laughed, “It works!”

He turned to his teammates and waved in the general direction of the still falling confetti, “Pretty great, right?”

Olivia continued to stare at the colorful squares as they floated softly to the ground. Ash slowly turned from the macabre celebration to regard his teammate.

“You were thirty-five minutes late… because of confetti?”

Mark shrugged.

Ash quickly fired off three quick headshots, each resulting in a _POP!_ , a cheer, and a shower of confetti. He snorted and laughed, “Mark, my friend, you are a genius.”

 

**Author's Note:**

> I was thinking the other day that since a few of the H5 visors mention things like virtual reality filters that you could totally have the Birthday Party skull in-canon. Definitely in the simulation rooms, but honestly you could totally build that into the helmets, too.


End file.
